The present invention relates to motor vehicle partition apparatus such as are used in police cars, taxi cabs and other automobiles to separate passengers in the rear seat of the automobile from the driver. The motor vehicle partition apparatus of the present invention is especially useful in a two door automobile to enable passenger entry to and exit from the rear seat of the automobile through the passenger door while protecting the driver from passengers in such rear seat.
It has been previously proposed in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,801 issued June 6, 1972 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,875 issued Apr. 5, 1977 of J. R. Setina to provide an automobile partition apparatus having a horizontal or vertical sliding window and mounted on a roll bar positioned within an automobile. However, these previous automobile partitions have only been suitable for use in a four door automobile positioned behind the front seat backrest of such automobile so that the partition sections are in lateral alignment with each other at the same longitudinal position along the longitudinal axis of the automobile. These prior automobile partitions are unsuitable for use in two door automobiles even though such automobiles are more maneuverable and less expensive to purchase and operate so they are frequently more desirable for use as police cars than four door automobiles.
It has also been previously known to use an automobile partition in a four door taxi cab to protect the driver from passengers in the rear seat or the front seat, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,549,195 of Kallinikos issued Dec. 22, 1970. However, this partition apparatus is not suitable for use in a two door automobile and is not provided with a forward partition section at the normal position of the front passenger seat, such forward section being longitudinally offset from a rearward partition section positioned behind the driver seat in the manner of the present invention. U.S. Pat. No. 2,495,520 of Grimm shows another four door taxi cab partition with a swingable front passenger seat to enable access to the rear seats from such front seat. However, there is no forward partition section which extends across the normal position of the front passenger seat and is longitudinally offset from a rearward partition section behind the driver seat in the manner of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,423,121 of Lipkin issued Jan. 21, 1969 shows a protective partition used in airplanes or trains to protect passengers against decelaration encountered upon stopping. However, this partition is not suitable for use in a two door automobile because it does not have a forward partition section in the normal position of the front passenger seat and which is longitudinally offset from a rearward section positioned behind the drivers seat of the automobile. Instead, the protective partition of this patent is designed to be positioned entirely in front of the passenger seat of an airplane or train to keep the passenger from being thrown forward during decelaration of the airplane or train such as on braking, or in a crash landing situation.